Tag Archives: sampling

Jean-Michel Andre’ Jarre-born in Lyon, France, was raised by a mother and grandparents. His father was the composer Maurice Jarre, and his mother a member of the French resistance fighter. As well as a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. Jean-Michel trained early on piano-an instrument he struggled with. Even at that point,he was introduced to a lot of street performers,jazz musicians and became an admirer of sculptor Pierre Soulages. A particular interest of his were the free jazz musicians John Coltrane,Don Cherry and Archie Shepp.

He saw these artists on a semi regular basis at a Paris jazz club called Le Chat Qui Pêche,which his mother frequented with him once his father had slip up with her to base himself in America. Jarre’s musical influences in adult life could fill a book-especially his love of combining jazz harmonies,elements of musique’ concrete. After the home recording of his 1976 debut Oxygene was released, Jarre had become a pioneer of transitioning from electronic music into what became known as new age. Jarre was known for his elaborate,outdoor multi media live performances as well.

In the early 1980’s, his solo albums began to make use of the then new Fairlight CMI synthesizer and sampler. In 1984, Jarre combined a couple of compositions from his multi media projects with some newer material on an album called Zoolook. This album had a heavy polyrhythmic base-built around world fusion and synth pop sounds of the era. And sampling from the Fairlight. He brought in a group of guests from Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads guitarist Adrien Belew and jazz-funk slap bass maestro Marcus Miller. One of the songs that caught me on this album is called “Zoolookologie”.

A backwards drum loop starts out the song-followed up by a series of Vocoderized samples-some higher and others lower pitched. After that,the main choral body of the song comes in. Its defined by a strong electro funk/freestyle drum machine rhythm and hand clapping percussion. The melody of the song is defined by a series of sampled human voices-from the low,high and right around the middle, accented by some of the same digitized voices samples from the intro. These samples also make up the bridge. All before an extended chorus fades the song into a series of clicking,brittle digital sounds.

“Zoolookogie” reminds me of what a musically successful graft of the sound of Afrika Bambaataa and The Art Of Noise would sound like. The electro funk/hip-hop rhythms are very strong here. And the sounds of many of the vocal samples still have a very atmospheric quality. It does showcase a strong move away from the near total drone that represents the stereotype of new age music. This song has a great melody,brittle synth bass line and utilizes early sampling techniques brilliantly. And is one of my favorite Jean-Michel Jarre songs from the album of his which I know best.

Public Enemy have been this largely funk/soul/disco/jazz themed blog’s main reference point when it comes to hip-hop. Of course, that’s largely because of my long history with the band. Not to mention them being one of a handful of key topics between myself and blog consultant Henrique Hopkins. As much as black American music is always a forward thinking and moving creative endeavor, its might be fitting seven months after its official anniversary to explore three decades of American music dealing with the presence of Public Enemy’s debut album Yo! Bum Rush The Show.

Being someone born very directly into the 80’s? My perception of hip-hop (or rap as I’d be inclined to call it at the time) is that there were at least two evolutionary stages in the music before the middle of the decade. There was the late 70’s funk/disco oriented of Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow. And than you had the synth-electro oriented approach of Afrikka Bambaatta’s & The Soul Sonic Force. While Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five straddled both approaches.

Than along came Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin’s Def Jam. And the world was introduced to the likes of Run DMC, LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys. Somewhere in that mix? Rap that was overtly sociopolitical hadn’t been greatly represented since the Furious Five’s The Message. Than out of NYC and onto Def Jam came Public Enemy,a hip-hop collective led by turntablist Terminator X and MC’s Flava Flav and group leader Chuck D.

“You’re Gonna Get Yours” starts out the album with a grooving,bass/guitar riff led jam. The song I find most fascinating here is “Sophisticated Bitch”. It is a slow burning groove telling the story of a lady unknowingly prostituting herself-set to the funky rock-guitar riffing solos of Defunkt’s/Black Rock Coalition’s Vernon Reid re-creating the bass riff from Heatwave’s hit “The Groove Line”. “Timebomb” is another extremely hard grooving number.

Interestingly enough,numbers such as “Miuzi Weighs A Ton”,”Too Much Posse”, “Rightstarter”,”Public Enemy#1″,”MPE”,the title song,”Raise The Roof”,”Megablast” and “Terminator X Speaks With His Hands” are all much more in the stripped down,808 drum machine led hip-hop vein Def Jam was championing at the time. What really bought Public Enemy out into the fore was their authoritative rap delivery on the part of everyone,as well as the more aggressive stance of the sound. Which brings me to the main distinctive quality PE had right from the start.

Throughout this album? Chuck D and company were beginning to take a sociopolitical stance that was a bit more direct and specific than anyone in hip-hop had so far. These raps are less narrative stories to illustrate a certain theme. But are more declarations of their motivations. Very much a thematic disciple of Black Power icons such as Malcolm X,Huey Newton and especially musical icon James Brown,Chuck D makes it clear he wants to bring that sense of black empowerment into his type of hip-hop.

On this album? It came off as somewhat implied message wise because PE hadn’t fully developed their distinct musical sound when they were making this album. In a sense because of that? It might be the most important album they made,because it showcased the embryo of a sound that,without the public being fully aware of it coming perhaps,was about to be unleashed by Public Enemy onto the world of hip-hop and music in general.

One of the major points brought up after this Amazon.com review I did four years ago, again with Henrique, was Yo! Bum Rush The Show‘s relationship with the intentions of the Def Jam label’s founders. This occurred in the mid 1980’s, when American pop music charts and MTV were really pushing white rock artists/bands over any music that came from black American culture. That means that, especially with rap/rock crossover’s such as the Beastie Boys and Run DMC’s duet with Aerosmith on “Walk This Way”, that Russell and Rick desired Def Jam’s style of hip-hop to appeal to a young rock audience.

Public Enemy really changed that perception of Def Jam releases. As with any artist in any genre, their debut did the need for more growth. And as most PE admirers would know, this growth occurred very quickly. The group were at this time a five piece band that included live bass/guitar as well as DJ Terminator X. And also a strong rebirth of the black American political consciousness of the 1960’s that asked black people to take care of themselves as people. This pro black,anti self destruction message illustrated everything that has come to represent Public Enemy in the last 30 years.

Kate Bush’s 1982 album The Dreaming will be coming up to its 35th anniversary this coming September 13th. For years,I personally knew her only for her collaboration with Peter Gabriel. But none of her own music. It was from a YouTube anthology series Oddity Archive,hosted and created by my Facebook friend Ben Minnotte,did he process his love of the music of Kate Bush. So I sought out an album mentioned in one of his videos called Never For Ever. Interestingly enough, obtained The Dreaming for free in a CD grab bag I purchased earlier. Here is an Amazon.com review I wrote about it four years ago.

During a period where many of the record companies were desperately pleading with musical artists not to release any non commercial material? The age old plea from the artists themselves came into play: how to be creative and commercial at the same time. That wasn’t really a concern for Kate Bush.

Her first three albums tended to be singer-songwriter oriented as their core was focused on the material. With each release however her arrangements become far broader and more dynamic. So for her fourth album in 1982? She just flew with her own creative heart. “Sat On Your Lap”,”Pull The Pin”,”Leave It Open” and the title song, interestingly enough a single,are all built around percussively gated drumming and a number of digitally derived,synthesized effects creating vast seas of different tonal melodies.

Often times Aboriginal Australian and African rhythms come into play on the refrains of these songs as well. “There Goes A Tenner” and “Suspended In A Gaffe” are far closer to the piano based musical hall oriented uptempo 60’s type Brit-pop sound similar to her earlier music. “Night Of The Swallow”,”All Of Love” and “Houdini” all start out slower,piano based ballads before building into more stripped down rhythm intensity. “Get Out Of My House” is full of emotional fire-with an extremely percussive set of poly-rhythms.

It would seem that when this album first came out? It wasn’t exactly very well received. On the other hand later Bjork,an artist who is very clearly influenced by Kate Bush’s musical approach from even my under-trained ears,cited this as a favorite of her albums for her. Of course OutKast’s Big Boi also cited this album as a favorite. And listening to this album its easy to see how that interest is far from merely generational.

With today’s emphasis on pan ethnic rhythm oriented trip/trance-hop and different cinematic electronica/hip-hop hybrids? All of a sudden music such as what Kate Bush did,and wasn’t fully understood for in it’s time,suddenly made a lot of sense. Yet another example of how artists are often a bit creatively ahead of the listener.

So perhaps the pop/rock audience of the early 80’s weren’t sure what to make of these rhythmically and harmonically complex songs that populate the majority of this album. But another generation of musicians,as somewhat disconnected from the side of musical culture to which Kate Bush might’ve come from,heard something in what she did here that they could swing their own way. And in the end,that only makes this album all the more wonderful in terms of standing on its own merits.

With The Dreaming, Kate Bush brought in the then very new Fairlight CMI synthesizer computer to help her with this self produced album. One that took her original musical approach into the expansive world of world fusion. As well as accompanying musical tribalism. With one of its songs “Sat In Your Lap” originally inspired by Bush having attending a Stevie Wonder concert, The Dreaming stands as an example of an album that was (to some degree) an unexplored direction for early electronic sampling on a rhythmic level in what could be described as an early 80’s proto alternative album.

George Michael celebrated his first posthumous birthday yesterday. His death came very sadly and suddenly on Christmas day last year. Since that time,I have learned (along with my boyfriend) just to how important George Michael and Wham were to the post disco UK dance/funk/soul scene of the 1980’s. Wham were one of the “big four” bands on the UK’s major music program Top Of The Pops. As for Michael’s solo career, it operated from 1987 through 1991 before his record company conflict began. Yet that five years had Michael as part of a huge growth period for cutting edge,funky dance music.

His final single before these record company conflicts was originally recorded for his sophomore solo album Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1. It eventually ended up being released for the AIDS charity CD entitled Red Hot+Blue in 1992. All the proceeds from that and Michael’s accompanying single went to HIV/AIDS related causes. It was also Michael’s first extensive use of sampling-from sound clips from The Graduate and The Tony Hancock Show to a sample from Jocelyn Brown’s “Somebody Else’s Guy”. The name of the George Michael song that did all these things was “Too Funky”.

A fast electronic piano drum rundown introduces the song. Its a thick,slow drum machine rhythm with some shuffling, Brazilian style conga/percussion accents. The melodic body of the song is a round,five note synth brass part-along with pulsing electronic strings and like minded bass line. The piano/bass/drum interaction make up the refrains. With each choral variation, the synth brass returns and varies in tone. After a bridge that condenses the song down to the drums and bass line,the chorus fades the song out to a close with the piano part and the final sound sample of the song.

“Too Funky” is a song that basically pulls together all of the funkiest elements of 80’s dance music innovations. It has the the percussive shuffle of DC go go, the dramatic synthesized horns of the Minneapolis sound and the repetitive bass and piano of house music. What makes it “too funky” is not merely the sexually free (yet somehow post AIDS) lyrical content. But also the somewhat slower tempo and that percussive jump on the rhythms. George Michael wouldn’t put any new music out for four years after this. But it sure capped off the beginning of his solo career with a strong groove.

O’Shea Jackson Sr, better known as Ice Cube, had hip-hop on his mind ever since he was a teenager growing up in South Central LA. After seeing the movie Straight Outta Compton,got to wonder if the man was inspired by listening to piles of 70’s funk,soul and jazz records. After being involved in many rap battles,he soon took some demos to the late Eazy E at age 16. And the rest was history. Cube went from being involved with gangsta rap icons NWA in the late 80’s to a vital solo career by the end of the decade. The first of which is now also iconic album entitled Amerikka’s Most Wanted from 1989.

He began an acting career parallel to his solo career in 1991 with a part in the now iconic Boyz N The Hood. Five years later,he co-starred in the comedy Friday. In 1992 he married Kimberly Woodruff and eventually became a father of four. His eldest son O’Shea Jr portrayed his father in NWA’s aforementioned biopic. In between these events,Cube released his fourth album Lethal Injection. In included a duet with George Clinton,produced by Quincy Jones III called “Bop Gun (One Nation)”.

This song is basically Funkadelic’s 1978 hit “One Nation Under A Groove” slowed down to approximately 100 bpm in tempo,and then reconfigured musically. In this case, the songs percussive laced drum track introduces it. Bernie Worrell’s synthesizer squiggles are slowed down and used as random accents. The main body of much of the song is still based around the rhythm guitars and synth bass of the original’s refrain.Clinton and Cube duet primarily on the choruses,which are left somewhat similar to the original in melodic content.

“Bop Gun (One Nation)” was something I heard on a mix tape in the late 90’s made for me by a friend of my dads who learned I loved P-Funk. Hadn’t yet heard the original yet. Listening to it now, its an example of early 90’s gangsta rap turning from James Brown to P-Funk as an inspiration for sampling and general attitude. Cube is basically pointing out that he’d rather drop real guns that kill and take up a metaphoric “bop gun” that gets people to dance and live in this song. And using 90’s West Coast hip-hop’s coarser language inspired by Clinton,this is a superb example of P-Funk hip-hop in the end.

David Axelrod was yet another example of an artist I’d likely never have grown up knowing about had it not been for my father and his reading. Tended to think of him as somewhere as the middle ground between Quincy Jones and Henry Mancini. Growing up in South Central LA,a predominantly black and Latin community,Axelrod loved big orchestral arrangements yet strong contemporary soul,jazz and funk rhythms. Having grown up in a family who embraced left wing ideas,the themes of his music often explored the sociopolitical and spiritual changes of the 60’s and 70’s-during which he was recording.

Axelrod also associated himself with artists from a number of different genres in the role of producer/arranger. This included Cannonball Adderley,Lou Rawls and Letta Mbulu just to name a few. His legacy has been celebrated during the early aughts through magazines such as Wax Poetics. Especially when it came to how many hip-hop artists actually kept his sometimes forgotten songs alive through samples in their own music. Awkward as this sounds,even to this day I haven’t given David Axelrod’s music the attention it probably deserved. So today,I will be over-viewing one of his most famous songs “Holy Thursday”.

A two chord piano up scale along with a 2-3 note electric bass accent opens the song, before the piano turns into a vibraphone. Shortly thereafter, the thick funky drum shuffle kicks in along with the string and horn arrangements playing the piano part. Every other verse,with the same basic instrumental setup as the intro,the drumming turns over to a cymbal heavy jazz swing. On the bridge of the song,there’s a full on vibraphone solo before a heavy swinging drum solo for a few bars. A soulful piano and psychedelic rock guitar bring the song an outro similar to how it all began.

“Holy Tuesday” is one of those songs that,like the very best of Quincy Jones’ work, encapsulates not only the many of the musical but cultural flavors of its time frame. Released on his now iconic 1968 debut album Songs Of Innocence, the song represents a height of cinematic soulful jazz grooves. It has the rhythmic foundation of James Brown, the big jazz orchestral sound and piano/vibe solos-along and elements of what would become psychedelic soul with its rocked out guitar. Its therefore more than worthy of being a song successfully revived through the best of hip-hop’s preservationist legacy.

Lisa Velez is one of those musical figures who impact upon me in both a musical and a personal way. A Puerto Rican descended woman coming out of NYC,her Latina back round has those two similarities to the maternal side of my own family. On a musical level,her group Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam were one of the first commercially successful purveyors freestyle. This was a hip-hop related for of electro funk,built on samples and break beats,that was linked to break dancing culture of the 1980’s. At the end of the day,it expanded on the same Afro-Latin attitude that was at the core of classic funk-for its time.

1986 through about 1991 was something of a renaissance of Afrocentric rhythms within the dance music of the day. This had its impact on funk of that time for sure. That being said,in the first two years of the 90’s a more Latin jazz flavor began to emerge out of that groove. Having been famously produced by pioneering hip-hop band Full Force,Cult Jam turned to the production team of Clivilles & Cole (the masterminds of freestyle megastars C&C Music Factory) to pioneer the groups final album Straight Outta Hell’s Kitchen. The song on it that impacts me most is “Let The Beat Hit Em”.

Beginning with a vocal sample urging “to turn your bass to ours”,a JB style synth brass hit opens into the main chorus of the song. This is a shuffling,conga drum led rhythm with Lisa singing over some jazzy electric piano sounds. The refrains of the song single out the the same Afro Brazilian groove-along with the number of spoken word samples and (indeed) screams directly from James Brown. As the song goes on,more and more elements accentuate the groove. The drum machines on the refrains get heavier. And on the closing choruses,the synth orchestra hits come on hard.

“Let The Beat Hit Em” closes with the vocal sample of a female voice asking “what will people say?”. And it makes perfect sense considering that Clivilles & Cole were among the last of the major pop oriented dance producers who championed strong Afro Latin poly rhythms during the sample/hip-hop era. Along with C&C Music Factory,this is one of the funkiest jams the duo threw down during the early 90’s. And a great transition for one era of freestyle dance music making way for another. The fact this has a mellower,jazz funk atmosphere showcases part of the new trajectory for the freestyle dance genre.

Donald Byrd is one of my favorite musicians during the 70’s Blue Note era especially. The Detroit native replaced the late,great Clifford Brown in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers after a stint in the US Air Force. After launching his career as a band leader in the late 50’s,Byrd’s became Blue Notes equivalent of Miles Davis in terms of transitioning from acoustic bop jazz to fusion. Along the way,he also helped launch one of jazz-funk’s seminal bands in The Blackbyrds. His mid 70’s collaborations with the Mizell brothers Larry and Fonce are actually in a class by themselves too.

Around 12 years ago,I began to listen heavy to both the Blackbyrds and Donald Byrd’s mid 70’s jazz-funk recordings. This came from my dad playing the music of Madlib for me. Now this is a DJ/musician/producer/rapper who loved 70’s Blue Note. And focused a lot on Byrd’s music from that period. It was through DJ/musician Nigel Hall and his radio show at WMEB in Orono,Maine that I learned where to find one of my favorite pieces Madlib had used,since I wasn’t accustomed to first hearing classic funk songs via samples. Turning out that the song in question was the 1974 album title track “Stepping Into Tomorrow”.

A thunder-like sound opens into the song. The main groove is established right away. This is a slow,percussive drum from Harvey Mason,a melody setting bass line from Chuck Rainey,Larry Mizell’s ARP strings and Byrd’s trumpet. As the vocals of Byrd and a trio of female backup singers harmonize on the choruses,a minor chord intro then extends into a series of solos. First Byrd on trumpet,then Gary Bartz’s sax and finally Jerry Peters’ organ. The main chorus/intro/refrain parts repeat to,with a number of psychedelic,synthesized sonics until the song fades out.

“Stepping Into Tomorrow” is one of those truly democratic jazz/funk numbers. Instrumentally,it was a dream team of the finest of jazz/funk players in that area. And each one is performing at some of their finest on this groove. Its a strong enough groove to stand on its own. Yet it can be sampled all on its own in a way that doesn’t destroy its special musical qualities. Its the songs elasticity that represents its strongest quality. While I personally feel original funk songs should be searched for on their own rather than via samples,whatever method one uses to get to this funk will be its own reward.

She was the songwriter who bought us Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror”,and was also his duet partner on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”. One year after all this,Siedah Garrett released her very first solo album. It featured the majority of Quincy Jones’ Westlake studio crew on board. Along with one heavily re-worked Thriller era Rod Temperton composed MJ outtake “Got The Hots” on the ultra funkified “Baby’s Got It Bad”.

Key Jams: “Kiss Of Life”,”Groove Of Midnight”,”The Legend Of Ruby Diamond” and “Baby’s Got It Bad”

The reason this didn’t wind up listed with the Prince alumni article I did was because this album has nothing at all to do with Prince,or Paisley Park. Former Revolution guitarist Mark Brown (rechristened Brownmark by Prince) released this album for Motown. As with Prince,Brown plays most of the instruments. His approach as a multi instrumentalist is closer to the harder kick of a Teddy Riley, however. And this is not an album that compromises on the funky uptempo material at all.

Key Jams: “Next Time”,”She Don’t Care” and “Stakeout”

Clyde Criner is a fairly obscure figure. The reason I picked up this album was because of how much it flaunted its personnel. Mainly MY MAIN BASS MAN Marcus Miller. His slap bass soloing is all over this album,right along with Criner’s melodic block chords on different electric pianos and synthesizers. This album is a potent combination of synth funk and electronic jazz fusion licks.

Key Jams: “Just Might Be That Way”,”Spider” and “Kinesis”

Henrique and myself have a constant conversational theme about how 1987 in particular showcased a time period where heavier funk again became the main basis for dance oriented pop records of the era. And that year was a MAJOR year for 12″ mixes. I don’t have a all of them yet. But this was the first year that brand new music really made a significant impact on me at 6-7 years old. So its a good place to speak for early firsthand experience.

It was Henrique who turned me onto Barry White’s 1987 comeback single “Sho You Right”. This song mixes the synthesized Freestyle dance sound of that era with the strong Latin samba funk attitude White used to get with his Love Unlimited Orchestra. This 8+ minute extended 12″ mix really brings out the sauntering rhythm of it all by emphasizing the drums. The instrumental B-side focuses on the Santana-like Latin rock guitar solo.

The history behind the Alexander O’Neal song “Fake” is amazing in Minneapolis funk circles. It was written by AND for alumni’s of The Time. Jam & Lewis really bumped out the percussive,bass heavy funk for this number. The best part of these 12″ inch mixes is how they thoroughly explore the song. You’ve got an extended mix,a vocal remix-the “patty mix”,an a cappella mix featuring O’Neal,percussion and light synths only PLUS an instrumental with an amazing electric piano walk down. Amazing exploration of the groove and therefore one of the strongest 12″ inch funk singles I’ve heard this far.

Ray Parker Jr. is one of the most underrated guitarist/multi instrumentalists I know of. After a string of funky pop hits in the early 80’s as a solo artist,Parker emerged in 1987 with the single “I Don’t Think That Man Should Sleep Alone”. That,along with the guitar solo oriented instrumental “After Midnight” (title song of his album that year) showcase the urban contemporary jazzy funk side of his nature from his earlier session work with Herbie Hancock and Rufus. This 12″ mix of the song really showcases that.

Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam really brought the new jack swing pioneers Full Force into the limelight. Their Latin freestyle/dance club hits of the late 80’s were not only ultra catchy,but ultra funky as well. with Full Force being there to re-cut and remix their hits “Head To Toe” and “You’ll Never Change” showcased just how deeply these songs grooves.

M/A/R/R/S’s “Pump Up The Volume” was my first exposure to both House music and sampling,though I didn’t know what either were at the time of hearing it. This is an awesomely funky house/scratch/hip-hop number out of the UK. When I heard the Bar Kays “Holy Ghost” a decade or so later,it created a flashback to the “put the needle on the record” segment of this song. Another group member AR Kane provided the B-side “Anitina”,a brittle,Bill Laswell like funk rocker that I always enjoyed. Wanted to say a quick RIP to M/A/R/S member Steve Young,who passed away last month.

Prince’s final jam of the year for the 1990’s was 1999’s Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. This one and only Prince album on Arista derived from the artist’s legendary vault of unreleased music. One well known song was an outtake from the 1988 album Lovesexy. It was the new albums title song,and a funky one at that. The remainder of the album was catchy pop/rock oriented music featuring then very popular guests such as Ani DiFranco and Sheryl Crow. Public Enemy’s Chuck D even appeared on the hip-hop flavored “Undisputed”. Personally,this album had other levels of significance.

This would be the final album released by The Artist Formerly Known As Prince-using his O(+> glyph. It was pretty commercially successful at the time. Yet even though I personally was very interested in Prince,I avoided the album for years. This was due to one major moment of caving into record store peer pressure saying that this new Prince album was being out funked by Beck’s Midnight Vultures-released several days before it. A decade later,I began to see right through that statement and picked up the CD. I enjoyed much of it. But it was a hidden track called “Prettyman” that really stuck out most.

A fast paced drum shuffle,consistently accented by cowbell,gets the groove going and remains steady throughout most of it. A slippery bass line plays every note not heard within the fairly simple chords of the song for a thick bottom. Along with turn-tabling that brings in high pitched horn blast samples. Maceo Parker accents Prince’s chicken scratch rhythm guitar through a serious of calculated breaks-eventually coming back for Maceo to take one of his iconic sax solos. By the end,Prince is adding squiggly synth organ tones as he and Maceo solo fade the song right out to the sound of a glassy smash.

It was James Brown’s full rhythm approach that inspired Prince’s own type of funk from the outset. This can be heard as far back as 1987’s “Housequake”. On this song however,Prince isn’t just modernizing the JB funk sound: he’s outright re-creating it. Maceo Parker had by this time taken a journey through the three key phases of funk-through James Brown,P-Funk and winding up with Prince. And just at the time that the Minneapolis icon was finding his inner JB most fully. This approach to funk would be the one Prince would work around for much of the rest of his career as it turned out.